Although we had plans of leaving around 8 am Wednesday morning so we could leisurely stop and explore along our 5 hour drive, we didn’t end up leaving until 2 pm. The kids had been home from school all week (both kids threw up, luckily not at the same time) and the water heater in our rental house broke. While I was home with sick kids (Lucas and I were also sick but luckily not throwing up), Lucas was in a 95+ degree garage trouble shooting and repairing the water heater. After 6 hours in that garage we determined the water heater needed to be replaced. So Wednesday morning when we were supposed to be on the road, Lucas was replacing the water heater at the rental and I was packing the car. Tenny had thrown up the night before so we weren’t sure if we should go at all but he woke up feeling great so we decided to leave. Luckily the drive there was pretty good (kid wise) and we arrived at our cabin 30 min before check-in closed. All things considered the day went incredibly well!
First order of business in the morning… the “people ferry.” Up until this point the only ferry we’ve taken Tenny on is one you drive onto so we had to clarify this ferry wasn’t for cars, just people. The Diablo Lake Ferry runs a few times a day and we figured the earliest shuttle (8:30 am) would be the least crowded so we went straight there in the morning.
This ferry is a great way to see the beautiful lake. It takes a lot of stairs to get down to the boat dock but once you’re there it requires zero physical effort. Unless you’re holding a baby and trying to keep a toddler from sticking his head/body out the boat window. 🙂 It costs $10 one-way per person above the age of 4 ($40 for our family roundtrip). Most people ride one way at a time because they are trying to get to Ross Lake Resort or to one of the hiking trailheads on the other side of the lake.
Tenny loves tickets. He was so excited to hold onto the ferry tickets. He also loved the chance to run around the boat while it was going. Him and Murphy crawled around under the benches, climbed on the seats, and stuck their arms out the window. As long as the boat isn’t crowded, this is a great place for kids to move around. Especially since the ride is about 30 minutes each way and we road it round trip.
Murphy fell asleep in the car on the way from the ferry launch to our hike so the timing worked out perfectly. We started at Rainy Pass Trailhead around 11 am and hiked to Lake Ann. It took us less than 2 hours to get up and 45 min to get down. The way back was much faster because we were going downhill and we were trying to outrun the mosquitos AND most importantly keep Murphy awake until we got the car so she could sleep there instead of in the backpack.
I had originally planned for us to do one hike the first day and another one (Blue Lake) the second day. But 1/5 of the way up to Lake Ann I realized a second hike was off the table. One lingering side effect of pregnancy and delivery for me is sore hips. My hips are typically uncomfortable on a regular day and they hurt pretty bad when extra weight is put on them – which is exactly what these kid hiking backpacks are designed to do. I thought I could power through it for 2 hikes but it turns out 1 is my limit 🙂 I’m so glad we at least did one hike. Look how beautiful it is!!
We made it to Lake Ann! The top was more muddy than we expected (from melting snow) so there wasn’t a good place to rest and there were what felt like 100K mosquitos so we didn’t stay long. Just long enough to soak in how beautiful it is and get bitten a half dozen times.
Diablo Lake Lookout is one of several viewpoints that are right off the main road. We stopped at almost every one. Looking through the photos now I’m reminded just how beautiful it is there. It’s interesting how quickly you can get used to your surroundings and take them for granted. We really only spent 1 day in the national park and I had already started to look at these views like they weren’t that impressive. I’m going to work on my ability to stay in awe and really soak it in next time. Until then, I’ll keep flipping through these pictures.
There is a little general store right next to the visitor center and we were excited to get a treat. However, they are only open Monday – Thursday and it was Friday. I only include this fact because Lucas and I laughed so hard about this. Aren’t weekends the busiest times for national park visitors? Why would the store be closed on the weekends?! Luckily for us, there is also a large steam engine with a bell you can ring right next to the visitor center. In Tenny’s book this is way better than a treat. He played on this for 30+ minutes and it was a battle to get him to leave so we could go find dinner.
After an adventure full day, we spent our second and last night in the cabin then woke up, packed the car, and stopped at a breakfast diner (my favorite kind of breakfast place) to get some pancakes and hot chocolate. Lucas taught us all how to play table football while we waited for the food 🥞
We stopped at two different spots along the Skagit River. Tenny can’t get enough digging opportunities and Murphy’s new favorite past time is picking up handfuls of rocks and moving them to a new location so they thoroughly enjoyed both stops. The freezing cold water didn’t seem to bother Murphy.
Several months ago I favorited a park in Chehalis, WA on google maps because it looked so cool I wanted to stop by if we were ever driving through. On the drive up the kids were happy in the car and we didn’t want to risk chancing stopping so we went on the ride home. It turns out there is a super fun water park ($5 to get in) right next to that cool park so we ended up swimming instead. It was the perfect stop ☀️
Leading up to this trip life had been extra busy. I was actively applying and interviewing for jobs while still working full time then I started a new job. We had 2 birthday parties (one everyone was uninvited from because of sick kids). Friends and family in town for 2 weeks in a row. Lucas had some offsite work events. The weather was unbearably hot for a couple weeks. We really wanted to get away but we also didn’t have the energy to go. I’m so glad we made it happen. Road tripping with little kids is a lot of work but this experience was surprisingly rejuvenating and exactly what we needed.